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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25966165">The Sky Is Luminous</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/inexplicifics/pseuds/inexplicifics'>inexplicifics</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Accidental Warlord and His Pack [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fluff, Gen, Loyalty</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:34:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,979</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25966165</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/inexplicifics/pseuds/inexplicifics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A few days after Oxenfurt, the White Wolf asks to have a conversation with Milena.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon &amp; Original Female Character(s), Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia &amp; Original Female Character(s), Jaskier | Dandelion &amp; Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Accidental Warlord and His Pack [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683661</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>170</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2965</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Sky Is Luminous</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The White Wolf pokes his head in the doorway and says, “Lark; cub. May I steal your lady-in-waiting for a minute?”</p>
<p>“As long as Ciri’s fine with it,” Jaskier says, smiling up at his lover.</p>
<p>“If you promise to bring her back,” Ciri chirps, grinning at her father. “She’s teaching me embroidery, look! It’s a flower!”</p>
<p>The White Wolf obediently bends to examine Ciri’s attempt at a flower, which at the moment looks more like a multicolored hedgehog than anything else, and nods gravely. “Hm. Better than I could do,” he offers, and Milena stifles a giggle. Ciri bounces happily.</p>
<p>“Milena?” the White Wolf asks, raising an eyebrow at her. Milena takes a deep breath as surreptitiously as she can, rises, and gives him a little curtsey.</p>
<p>“I am of course at your disposal, my lord,” she says. She’s not nearly as scared of the White Wolf as she <em>used</em> to be - has sworn herself to his service and meant it, has seen how gentle he is with his child and his lovers, how even his temper remains even under great stress - but he’s still quite intimidating, with his golden eyes and unreadable expression.</p>
<p>He leads her down the stairs and - to her surprise - up again and out onto the battlements overlooking the training grounds. She looks for Lambert instinctively, and finds him sparring with a Manticore, both of them shirtless despite the early-autumn chill. The White Wolf lets her look her fill, lounging against one of the merlons and - Milena glances over out of the corner of her eye and follows his gaze - watching Eskel trounce a Bear Witcher, a very faint smile on his lips.</p>
<p>She turns after a few moments and curtsies again, for lack of any better idea how to begin this conversation - whatever conversation it may be. She genuinely isn’t sure what he might wish to say to her.</p>
<p>The White Wolf turns to look at her fully - <em>gods</em>, those golden eyes are disconcerting, so much more intense than Lambert’s topaz or even Eskel’s amber - and to Milena’s surprise, inclines his head a little. “I owe you my thanks,” he rumbles.</p>
<p>Milena doesn’t gape, because she has better self-control than that, but knowing what she does of Witchers, she’s <em>sure</em> he smells her shock. “Your thanks, my lord?”</p>
<p>“Jaskier and Eskel both told me about your courage and your skill,” the White Wolf says, and grimaces a little. “You should not have had to kill. You are under my protection; no enemy should have reached you. But you did, and to protect my -” he hesitates. “My beloveds. So. I owe you thanks.”</p>
<p>Milena swallows. “I - I won’t say I enjoyed the experience,” she says slowly. She hated it, in fact, and has woken up weeping for the past three nights, remembering the moment her dagger slid home in Agata’s heart. Lambert has been half frantic with worry each time, and being cradled in his arms, his rough voice murmuring quiet words of love, is a wonderful way to banish such night terrors, but Milena’s sure she’s going to continue to have nightmares for a <em>while</em>. She has never wanted to have blood on her hands, but -</p>
<p>Well, she’d do it again, if she had to, to protect the people she loves.</p>
<p>“I hated it,” she confesses, and as she has not quite dared to hope, those golden eyes do not judge, do not condemn her weakness. The White Wolf merely nods, solemn and serious. “I hated it, but I don’t <em>regret</em> it, and I’d do it again a hundred times over. I swore my fealty to you, and surely protecting your beloveds is a part of that.”</p>
<p>The White Wolf considers that. “You should not have had to,” he says at last. “You should never have to again. But I am very glad Lambert has taught you to use a dagger.” He smiles, just a tiny crook of his lips. “You’re good for him. I owe you thanks for that, too.”</p>
<p>“You owe me no thanks for loving him, my lord,” Milena says. “I would do that even if you forbade it, after all.”</p>
<p>To her surprise - monarchs, in her admittedly limited experience, don’t enjoy being told that their subjects would <em>disobey</em> them - that earns her an expression <em>anyone</em> would have to call a smile, a real genuine curve of the White Wolf’s lips. “Good,” he rumbles. “Good.” And, to her abiding surprise, he straightens and then <em>bows</em>, a deep gesture of respect. “I doubted,” he says, soft like a confession. “I did not think a noblewoman would do well among wolves.”</p>
<p>Milena laughs, astonished at herself. “I doubted too,” she admits. “Kaer Morhen is <em>very</em> different from - everything in Redania, really.”</p>
<p>The White Wolf nods. “I do not doubt anymore,” he says. “There is steel in you, Milena of Kaer Morhen.”</p>
<p>“At the very least there is steel ready to my hands,” Milena says, and the White Wolf <em>chuckles</em>.</p>
<p>“So there is,” he agrees. “So. Thank you.” He pauses, frowns a little - Milena realizes she’s maybe getting better at reading his expressions, even just over the course of this brief conversation - and adds, “Is there some reward you would desire? I -” He pauses again, and grimaces, and something in his body language changes, and Milena realizes suddenly that he’s just as out of his depth as <em>she</em> is right now, just as uncertain. “I know kings give honors, but -”</p>
<p>“But you are a Witcher, not a king,” Milena says, smiling as he nods. “And this is new to you, is it not, my lord?” Because he’s never had a <em>court</em> before, not really, not even a very small one - a bard-consort and a lady-in-waiting, the smallest court in all the world.</p>
<p>“Very new,” he says, almost ruefully.</p>
<p>Milena reaches out, astonished at her own daring, and puts a hand gently on his forearm. “I don’t need any reward, my lord,” she says. “I did as any vassal ought, after all.”</p>
<p>The White Wolf looks genuinely startled at her touch. “You did more than that,” he says after a moment. “Hm. If you ever need anything, ask. If I can give it, it is yours.”</p>
<p>Milena <em>does</em> gape at that. That promise, from <em>this</em> man - that is a blank writ of <em>staggering</em> potential. “That’s a very dangerous offer to make, my lord,” she says faintly.</p>
<p>The White Wolf snorts. “Yes,” he says. “Wouldn’t make it to someone I couldn’t trust.”</p>
<p>Which is even <em>more</em> staggering. Milena does not think she has ever even <em>dreamed</em> that the White Wolf, Warlord of the North, terror of the continent, might <em>trust</em> her as a king does his most faithful vassals and confidants, but she can’t really put any other interpretation on that astonishing offer. “I shall requite that trust, my lord,” she says, as steadily as she can.</p>
<p>“Already have,” he says, and pats her hand gently where it still rests on his arm. “C’mon, should bring you back to the cub before she comes to hunt us down.”</p>
<p>Milena giggles. “She would,” she agrees, and finds herself going down the steps on the White Wolf’s arm. “Your cub is a fierce little thing.”</p>
<p>His smile is broad and true and proud. “Oh yes.” And then, with a sort of wry humor Milena genuinely did not think the White Wolf <em>had</em>, “Much like her lady-in-waiting.”</p>
<p>Milena feels her cheeks heat, and giggles again. “You know, I didn’t quite believe Jaskier when he said you were funny, my lord.”</p>
<p>The White Wolf raises an eyebrow at her. “Hm. No rumors of my sense of humor, in Redania?”</p>
<p>“None,” Milena says. “But then, everything they know of you in Redania is absolute bullshit, so I shouldn’t be surprised.”</p>
<p>That earns her a snort of amusement. “Lambert’s rubbing off on you,” the White Wolf observes.</p>
<p>Milena has no idea what makes her do it - feels almost like the words fall from her mouth without any help from her mind. “Frequently, yes.”</p>
<p>The White Wolf stops dead, turns to stare at her in blank disbelief for a single endless moment, and then collapses back against the wall of the corridor with an echoing guffaw. And it’s -</p>
<p>It’s suddenly impossible to think of him as the <em>White Wolf</em>, Warlord of the North, terror of the continent. He’s just a man - a very imposing man, yes, golden-eyed and broad-shouldered and dangerous - but just a man, laughing.</p>
<p>No wonder Jaskier came to love him, once he learned to see the man beneath the name.</p>
<p>“Fuck,” Geralt says, pushing himself off the wall and taking a deep breath and offering her his arm again. “Well played.”</p>
<p>Milena grins up at him, and she doesn’t think she’s imagining the lack of tension in his shoulders, the way he doesn’t hold himself so stiffly as they continue down the corridor. “Thank you, my lord.”</p>
<p>“Hm,” he says, as they reach the foot of the stairs to Ciri’s rooms, and he pauses and inclines his head. “No. Thank you.”</p>
<p>She curtsies, low and graceful, and he bows again, and she starts up the stairs with an odd sort of <em>proud</em> feeling in her heart. Her king - her <em>king</em>, the king she chose to follow, even if he does not claim that title and would be horrified to know she has thought it - trusts her, and values her, not for her beauty or for her father’s title or wealth, but for her own courage and skills.</p>
<p>“There you are,” Jaskier says as she comes back into Ciri’s sitting room. “And how was your conversation with my Wolf, then?”</p>
<p>“Enlightening and astonishing,” Milena says, and bends to see that Ciri has somehow managed to stitch half a dozen loops around a finger and has quite thoroughly attached herself to the fabric she’s been attempting to decorate. “Oh dear. Darling cub, I think the rest of today’s lesson had better be how to unpick a mistake.”</p>
<p>Ciri gives her a rueful look so like her father’s that Milena has to stifle a giggle. “Yes, I think that might be wise,” she admits. “You look happy; Papa wasn’t too growly?”</p>
<p>“Not too growly at all,” Milena assures her, and then, low like it’s a secret, “I made him laugh.”</p>
<p>Ciri giggles delightedly. “Oh good!” she says, and then, “Oh dear, I think I’ve lost my needle.”</p>
<p>“...Hold still,” Milena says, and Jaskier puts his lute aside and rises to come and help.</p>
<p>By the time they find it, it’s time to go down for dinner, and Milena astonishes herself and - she suspects - several Witchers by giving Geralt a broad smile as she goes by on her way to her own seat. Not, however, as many as are astonished when Geralt, unmistakably, smiles back.</p>
<p>Behind her, she hears Jaskier say, “I <em>told</em> you you’d like her if you gave her a chance.”</p>
<p>Geralt chuckles, soft and low. “And you were right, my lark. Feel free to gloat.”</p>
<p>“Thank you,” Jaskier says, “I think I will.”</p>
<p>Milena manages to keep a straight face until she makes it to her chair, but only just. Triss looks over as she starts to giggle and shakes her head.</p>
<p>“Well <em>you</em> look like you’ve had a good morning, lass.”</p>
<p>Milena grins at her. “I have,” she says. “Did <em>you</em> know Geralt has a sense of humor?”</p>
<p>Triss puts a hand to her chest and pretends to be utterly astonished. “Our Geralt? A sense of humor? <em>Never!</em>”</p>
<p>Milena almost falls out of her chair, she’s laughing so hard; and when she finally gets her breath back, she feels...lighter somehow. The blood on her hands won’t be forgotten so easily, the nightmares won’t vanish all in a moment, but she knows she’ll be alright eventually - cannot doubt it, when the White Wolf himself thinks that under her silk and finery, her noble courtesy and dainty manners, there is steel.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you all for the lovely comments and kudos and suggestions; I am eternally grateful for the support for this AU. Please feel free to come say hello on tumblr (inexplicifics) or Discord (inexplicifics #2690).</p></blockquote><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25983550">[Podfic] The Sky Is Luminous</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceOfTigers/pseuds/AceOfTigers">AceOfTigers</a>
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